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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.”
Children are what their parents make them by their instruction, dis-
cipline, and example. Hence the overwhelming importance of parental
faithfulness in training the young for the service of God. Children
should early be taught the sacredness of religious obligations. This is
a most important part of their education. Our duty to God should be
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performed before any other. The strict observance of God’s law, from
principle, should be taught and enforced. “For He established a testi-
mony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded
our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that
the generation to come might know them, even the children which
should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of
God, but keep His commandments: and might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their
heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.”
Here is seen the great responsibility devolving upon parents. Chil-
dren who are allowed to come up to manhood or womanhood with
the will undisciplined and the passions uncontrolled, will generally
in afterlife pursue a course which God condemns. These are eager
for frivolous enjoyments and irreligious associates. They have been
allowed to neglect religious duties and indulge the inclinations of the
carnal heart, and, as a consequence, Satan controls the mind and prin-
ciples. In-----parents have given him ample room thus to work. Most
of the backsliding from God that has occurred in that place has come
in consequence of the parents’ neglect to train their children to a con-
scientious, religious life. The condition of these children is lamentable.
They profess to be Christians; but their parents have not taken upon
themselves the burden of teaching them how to be Christians—how to
recount the mercies of God, how to praise Him, how to exemplify in
their lives the life of Christ.
When these children enter school and associate with other students,
those who have been really trying to be Christians are ashamed to act
out their faith in the presence of those who have had so much light.
They are ashamed to appear singular and deny inclination, and so
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they throw away their armor at the very time when it is most needed,
when the powers of darkness are working through these irreligious